DAY 21-24: The Farm Gang moves to Pai.
Next morning Darila(@darila_ ), Hippo (@hippolyte.v), and me, decided to hitchhike back to Chiang Mai👍. Despite my sexy pose, Hippo was the one that got a Thai lady to give us a ride. She did speak that much English, but she was super excited to have us aboard. She did not only drop us at the bus station, but also came to help us buy the tickets to Pai, all in exchange for a picture together.
The ride between Chaing Mai and Pai was intense, 762 vomit-inducing curves🤮 (little did I know that I would be repeating that trip a couple more times in the future). Until now, I had resisted being another tourist buying elephant baggy pants or t-shirts. But somehow Pai influenced me. Pai is considered the Thai hippie paradise, with a laid-back atmosphere, a fire circus, lots of yoga, delicious food, and surrounded by beautiful nature.
The hippie vibe started to grow on me (like my hair and my beard🧔), and I ended up getting my first Aladin pants and elephant tank top🧞. Another first experience to add in Pai was driving a bike (followed by my first accident too, but that will come later).
I wanted to drive a scooter for a long time, but I kept hearing negative opinions on how dangerous the roads are in Thailand, how the Thai police are there to get you if you don’t have the correct driver’s license, etc. However, Philip (@so_ein_baertiger_tuep), who had come from Chiang Mai to Pai driving a rented bike, convinced me to give it a try letting me his. I will be eternally grateful as that moment changed my whole trip🛵.
For the following days, the farm gang (Dilara, Hippo, Philip, Yvonne (@yvonnevanzyl1) and Ella) would rent our own bikes and went exploring Pai’s surrounding areas. A traditional Chinese village (tourist trap, they scummed us in the only restaurant and threatened us to call the police if we did not pay), waterfalls (sadly they were a bit dry), the Land Split, the Pai WWII memorial bridge, and the two most iconic highlights the Withe Buddha, and the Pai Canyon.
However, the best memories of those days in Pai are all the moments we spent together, connecting (since on the farm we were too busy working and eating mindfully), watching sunsets and sunrises and making the promise that even our journeys would split soon we would meet again🌄.
But, wait!! What happened with the motorbike accident?💥 I have to admit it was my fault, after the first day driving, I felt so secure of my skills that I permitted myself to constantly check the phone while driving to look at the map. Surprisingly, that was not the cause of the accident, but it gave me a false sense of security.
It was Philip last day and we went far North to enjoy a relaxing day of hot springs. They turned out to be quite expensive so we decided to go to a random location of the map that also pointed to a hot spring. We ended up in a semi-abandoned village, we trespassed into a local’s farm (as the map indicated that was the way) and kept walking until someone caught us and asked us to leave (it didn’t seem we were going to find the hot spring anyway).
On the way back, we found a police control, I was a bit/lot scared💩 as I don’t have any kind of driving license, luckily they were only looking for drugs and we could resume our paths.
All the excitement made us hungry, and we were looking for a place to stop and eat. I saw one, and turned my head back for 3 sec to point the rest of the gang that we could stop there. Those 3 sec were enough for my bike to deviate left, towards a big patch of sand, lose control of my bike, fall on the road, and be droved over by Hippo who was a bit too close to me.
Luckily I only got some scratches and injured my wrists for the following month. It was a good wake up call to be more conscious while on the road, but it did not stop me from keep driving bikes.
That last day Philip reminded us how powerful it is to compliment each other, so we shared beautiful and positive words before saying good bye.